Stability of ethyl esters from soybean oil exposed to high temperatures in supercritical ethanol

▶ Several decomposition phenomena occurred during the supercritical alcoholysis of vegetable oils. ▶ Decomposition phenomena are “selective” towards the polyunsaturated fatty esters. ▶ There are no reasons to attribute selectivity to the acoholysis reaction. ▶ Supercritical transesterification of soybean oil should be performed below 300 °C, in order to preserve the integrity of the fatty raw material.